American Worship

 

I Thess. 1:9, 10 "Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to

wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which

delivered us from the wrath to come.

It is time for repentance, to follow the Thessalonians.

 

Idolatry begins in the inner man because of inherited wickedness. Idolatry is nurtured

in the inner man.by wicked lusts and thoughts.  Idolatry is first judged in the inner man

by spiritual blindness and corrupt thinking.

American Idolatry: These are old idols and were condemned by the law and the

prophets of Scripture. Among Other Things:

Wealth: we think we can create bread from stones by issuing loads and loads of fake

money. We cannot pray in public for our daily bread, but we can lobby the government

for free everything.

Military: we think we can be secure behind the finest military in the world. We war

against God and build advanced weapons.

Education: We seek to create a new kind of virtuous man through education,

discipline, and nurture.  Teachers cannot teach children about being born again, but

every school has a psychiatrist for mental health problems and every parent has access

to mind changing drugs and behavior modification techniques.

Sex: sex, sex, and more sex of all varieties: fornication, sodomy, adultery,

pornography almost without restriction. Arts, Music, and even Religion is spiced with

sex to keep them from being boring.

Science. We reject the knowledge of Scripture and pour our energy in to broken pots

that hold no water. We dream that our every need will be supplied if we can only

master the knowledge of the creation. Not even the notion of God is necessary for we

have unlocked the secrets of nature and will soon be master of our own destiny and

happiness. We boast in our wisdom that over thousands of years that will understand

the workings of the world that God created out of nothing by the word of His power.

How foolish is the idolater in the midst of his self-congratulations:

Jeremiah 9:23, 24: "Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am

the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth:

for in these things I delight, saith the LORD."

Not only did the prophets speak against the idolatry of Israel, the covenant people, but

they also spoke dire warnings against the nations: Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, Egypt,

Moab, Edom, Canaan, etc. for their blasphemies against their Creator, the living God,

and called them to repentance, warning them of famine, disruptions of nature and wild

animals, wars, pestilence, and other disasters.

Isaiah 2:17-22: "And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of

men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols

he shall utterly abolish.

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of

the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the

earth. 

"In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made

each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of

the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory

of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose

breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

 

Heidelberg Catechism:

Q95: What is idolatry?

A95: Idolatry is to conceive or have something else in which to place our trust instead

of, or besides,  the one true God who has revealed Himself in His Word.[1]

1. Eph. 2:12; 5:5; Phil. 3:19; John 2:23; 5:23; II John 1:9; Psa. 62:5-7; 73:25-26;

81:8-9; Matt. 6:24